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Looking for freedom? Networks of international student mobility and countries’ levels of democracy
Author(s) -
Vögtle Eva Maria,
Windzio Michael
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
the geographical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.071
H-Index - 64
eISSN - 1475-4959
pISSN - 0016-7398
DOI - 10.1111/geoj.12329
Subject(s) - homophily , dyad , prosperity , exponential random graph models , democracy , political science , social mobility , democratization , sociology , graph , psychology , random graph , social science , social psychology , law , computer science , theoretical computer science , politics
This article analyses the network of international student mobility between OECD and European Higher Education Area (EHEA) member countries between 2000 and 2009. It aims to investigate the link between countries’ levels of democracy and how this impacts on their ability to attract degree‐mobile students from abroad. Social network analysis and exponential random graph modelling are used to show that the ties of student mobility occur more often when both countries in the dyad have either low or high levels of democracy and when the receiving country is also economically wealthy. The network is characterised by a core–periphery structure where a few countries act as hubs with numerous strong ties. The overall results lend support to homophily assumptions about the network of internationally mobile students and show a considerable confounding of effects of democratisation and economic prosperity on international student mobility.